ACL compiles a daily media monitoring service of stories of interest to the Christian constituency relating to children, family, drugs and alcohol, marriage, human rights, religious freedom etc. Visit the ACL’s website each day to see what’s of interest in the news. Please note that selection of the articles does not represent ACL endorsement of the content.

A parliamentary committee has delivered a damning report card on the health and literacy of children living in the resource-rich North West of the state. The committee found that although the mining industry has invested heavily in educational programs in the Pilbara, up to 80 per cent of Aboriginal people in some communities remain illiterate.

Gay couples and singles will be denied the right to have a child by surrogacy under plans flagged by the Queensland government. Gay rights campaigners erupted in anger at state parliament on Thursday night, when Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie flagged the repeal of parts of the former Labor government's Surrogacy Act.

An illegal snake, a stolen dog and $50,000 worth of the drug ice have been seized by police carrying out bikie-related raids in Sydney's west. Two men, including an alleged Rebels associate, have been arrested after officers swooped on five properties in Willmot, Londonderry, Lethbridge Park, St Marys and Richmond.

A shocking number of babies are testing positive for marijuana use, according to a recent scientific study. Baby wash, baby shampoo and bedtime bath soap are all seemingly innocent products used every day. But scientists at the University of North Carolina found them to be the culprit behind a spike in false positive marijuana results in baby's urine, the study, published in the journal Clinical Biochemistry, said.

Speaking at a meeting of the Royal Society of Medicine, a respected neuroscientist said that euthanasia has become part of the “standard way of dying” in Great Britain. Patrick Pullicino says that the Liverpool Care Pathway—a protocol under which food and water are withdrawn from patients whose death is deemed imminent—is now routinely used with elderly patients who could recover.

Developer Blizzard has launched its real money auction house for Diablo III, enabling players to buy and sell virtual items with real cash. Guides to help players make money by playing the game are already being posted across the web, including advice that sounds very similar to gambling on the stock exchange. Meanwhile, long-running online game Runescape is being widely criticised for encouraging youngsters to gamble.

Everyone wants to live in a happy, comfortable home. But life doesn't always give you that option. Stacey is a mother of two, and was homeless - at one time in her life she even lived in the family car.

The latest unfolding humanitarian disaster in the Indian Ocean underscores the urgent need for a bi-partisan solution to stopping the dangerous people smuggling trade, according to the Australian Christian Lobby. ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said tonight that both sides had played politics over the asylum seeker issue and lives were being lost as a result.

Rescuers have picked up 110 survivors from an asylum seeker boat that capsized on its way to Australia from Sri Lanka with up to 200 people on board. Three men have been confirmed dead and dozens more are missing.

A tragedy is unfolding in the waters north of Christmas Island, with reports two boats carrying hundreds of asylum seekers have capsized. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has confirmed a boat carrying about 200 asylum seekers capsized about 120 nautical miles north of Christmas Island this afternoon.

We're multicultural, multi-lingual and multiplying - and the world is here to see it. Census figures released yesterday reveal a record number of NSW residents now speak a language other than English at home and more than a quarter of us hail from overseas. Sydney remains Australia's multicultural heart, with more than a third of residents born in another country.

Australians are losing their faith with religion, census figures reveal, with close to 4.8 million people saying they have no affiliation. For those who do believe, the greatest growth is among followers of Islam, with the number of Muslims up 40 per cent since the 2006 census. The figures confirm the long-term trend in declining religious affiliation and the fall in Christian faiths.

New census figures have painted a picture of Australia's mining boom, revealed a large jump in the number of people identifying as indigenous and shown us to be less religious. Data released today from the 2011 Census shows the country's population has reached 21.5 million, an 8.3 per cent increase from 19.8m in 2006.